Stuart Walker (director)

Stuart Walker was born March 4, 1888, in Augusta, Kentucky, the son of Cliff Stuart Walker and Matilda Taliaferro Armstrong Walker. After attending public school in Cincinnati and graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he went to work for David Belasco and made his debut as an actor in 1909. He became a play reader for Belasco, and directed plays including The Governor's Lady (1912). In 1914 Walker joined Jessie Bonstelle as a director in Detroit and Buffalo.^[1]

In 1915, Walker organized the Portmanteau Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company. He produced seasons in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville and New York City. He staged the first dramatization of Booth Tarkington's bestselling novel Seventeen,^[1] presented on Broadway in 1918 starring Gregory Kelly and his future wife, newcomer Ruth Gordon.^[2]

Walker's repertory company was active throughout the 1920s.^[3] Its credits include the first American performance of Alberto Casella's supernatural drama Death Takes a Holiday, adapted by Walter Ferris, in 1929.^[4]

In 1930, Walker became a screenwriter in Hollywood,^[1] and served as dialogue director on films including Brothers and The Last of the Lone Wolf.^[5] He directed his first feature film the following year, and in 1936 he became a producer for Paramount Pictures.^[1]

Walker died March 13, 1941, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, following a heart attack.^[1]